alternatehistory.com

The detroit red wings seems to have finally fouund hope. Strengthened massively by the acquistions of chris chelios and paul ysebaert as well as the russians sergei fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov, wayne gretzky, steve Yzerman and Co. Had a really good regular season, shooting up to 3rd in the norris division standings, reaching the 90 points barrier for the first time since wayne gretzky arrived. Chelios and konstantinov gave a big dose of quality to the defense, coach bryan murray building a tight unit at the back, with homegrown talents steve chiasson and Yves Racine benefitting greatly from playing with their new teammates, Racine even racking up 47 assists.


But the breakout star of the wings was, no doubt about it, sergei fedorov. The russian was immediately put on gretzky's line, and the two had a mutual understanding of each other despite the language barrier, frequently switching positions and making beautiful criss-cross passes towards one another. It's as if gretzky found himself a new jari to play with!

Fedorov would become not only the first rookie to score 50 goals since calgary's joe nieuwendyk, but also the first rookie to score 100 Pts since Winnipeg's Dale Hawerchuk! Though sceptics believed that gretzky was helping him pad his stats...


It wasn't just the first line that was on fire, though. Adam graves would have his breakout season, scoring 35 goals alongside steve yzerman. Paul maclean was on his way to having another good season when he unfortunately suffered a torn rib cage during a game against buffalo, which would eventually put an end to his career. This forced shawn burr to fill in on the 2nd line, whEre he would complement Yzerman and Graves well. Paul ysebaert, meanwhile, would deliver a solid performance as the 3rd line center alongside johan garpenlov, shawn burr and, later, Todd Fedyk. Finally, at the trade deadline, the wings pulled off another coup, acquiring New york rangers goalie and detroit native john vanbiesbrouck and the rangers 1992 first round pick for doug houda, Joey Kocur and their own 1992 1st round pick.


Meanwhile, around the league, there were some massive news: For the first time since the NHL-WHA Merger, the league will expand to three teams, with The San Jose Sharks arriving in 1991, bringing hockey back to the bay area for the first time since the california seals left for cleveland, and Teams from ottawa and Milwaukee coming in for 1992. Ottawa, in particular, will ressurect the historic Senators Franchise that won multiple stanley cups in the roaring 20s, while milwaukee will call themselves the Admirals, after the successful minor league team of the same name.



The minnesota north stars, whom the gund brothers wanted to move to san jose before settling with an expansion team, Would then be bought by Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson, the owners of the NBA's minnesota timberwolves, and as such will move into the brand new Target Center for the season.

The biggest on-ice story of the season remains denis savard's dispute with Chicago blackhawks coach Mike Keenan. Following disagreements with keenan's coaching, savard requested a trade. However, those plans went up in flames when the red wings hijacked a deal to send savard to montreal in exchange for chris chelios. After no suitors was found, the tensions between savard and keenan was such that savard sat the season out, in hopes of getting traded. Unfortnuately, no suitor was found, and savard made good on his promise and continued sitting out. This allowed him to recover from the injuries that he suffered in the past before, finally, Keenan and dollar bill wirtz waived him shortly before christmas. The winnipeg jets claimed him, with GM John Ferguson hoping for savard to take the load off of thomas steen and ray ferraro.



The move payed off for savard, and he played a more efficient role on the second line. Savard, as well as the defense led by freddie olausson, Teppo Numminen and new acquistion phil housley, would propulse the jets to the last playoff spot available in the smythe, barely beating the vancouver canucks by 3 points.

Meanwhile, the los angeles kings and the calgary flames were the class of the smythe division, with los angeles beating calgary for top spot by only 2 points. Jimmy carson has blossomed into an elite center, and his line with luc robitaille and tony granato struck fear in opposing defenses. Bobby carpenter and tomas sandstrom would have a new partner in russian dmitri khristich, the kings's 3rd round pick in 1988. Having defected from the soviet union, Khristich would prove a valuable asset on the second line.


But the biggest addition on the roster was Rob blake. The kings's 2nd round pick in 1988 would fit right into the second defensive pairing alongside doug crossman, and he would put up a solid rookie season, scoring 46 points. With blake and khristich adding himself to the young core of robitaille, carson, carpenter, gelinas, duchesne and daryl sydor, the kings are set to be cup contenders in the next few years.


The st. Louis blues made headlines when they signed washington's Top defenseman scott stevens in free agency. Joinging an already strong defense coupled with a free-scoring offense led by the hull and oates duo and rod brind'amour as well as secondary scoring from cliff ronning, geoff courtnall, bob bassen and dave lowry, as well as the breakout of curtis joseph, the blues finished top of the norris division with 113 pts.

With rick tocchet and jarri kurri surrounding 3rd overall pick keith primeau, as well as a lots of depth with pelle eklund, keith acton, murray craven and ron sutter and a tight unit at the back and ron hextall in front of net, the philadelphia flyers peeps out the new jersey devils for the last playoff spot in the patrick division.


The pittsburgh penguins made a big acquisition in larry murphy from the minnesota north stars. Jaromir jagr was every bit as advertised, forming a wild duo with mario lemieux. They attempted to acquire ron francis and ulf samuelsson at the trade deadline, but the whalers, fresh off a stanley cup win, considered both men off limit, with francis signing a lucrative contract extension. The pens were disappointed, but it's alright, they got john cullen and zarley zalapski. What could possibly go wrong?

As for the whalers, their stanley cup win galvanised the team, with the money coming in being especially welcomed ny the community-owned team. The whalers, already a solid team, became even better with the off-season acquisition of Dave Ellett from Winnipeg in exchange for second line center ray ferraro. This allowed prospect bobby holik to take that spot and make it his own, gelling well with scott young. Ellett joins an already well-established defensive unit featuring ulf samuelsson, Norm maciver, brad shaw and dave babych, whose long-term injury prompted the walers to acquire ellett.


NHL PLAYOFFS 1990-1991

Boston vs Hartford

Montreal vs Buffalo

Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia

NY Rangers vs Washington

Chicago vs minnesota

Detroit VS St. Louis

Los angeles vs Winnipeg

Calgary Vs Edmonton